Tomb of Annihilation - Session 36
General Summary
As the party leaves Obo'laka's shrine, nearby birds suddenly take flight. The ground shakes, and a few buildings crumble further into dust. But the earthquake is a minor one, and dies down after a few minutes.
Chibuzo casts Pass Without Trace again, and the adventurers are veiled in shadows and silence as they sneak northeastwards along the twenty-five-foot-high outer wall of the palace compound. Midway, they pass beneath a guard atop the wall but he seems oblivious to their presence. When they find themselves amidst a few low buildings, they distance themselves from the palace as much as they can, walking next to the cliff face until they come to the edge of the shallow water that floods this part of Omu. Ahead of them to their left is the shrine of Nangnang, where obelisks carved with prancing froglike creatures flank a gateway in the shrine's outer wall. Beyond, a short stairway climbs to the shrine entrance.
The tranquility of the ruins is marred by chaos and violence. Thick black smoke pours out of the shrine's open stone doors, and the sounds of fighting echo from within. Ahead of the shrine, half a dozen humanoid yuan-ti fight dagger-wielding grungs: small, brightly-coloured froglike humanoids. At least a dozen grung corpses are floating in the water, but even as the adventurers watch, three dead grungs and a dead yuan-ti rise again as zombies. Observing from a distance is the hovering, robed figure of Rashaad ibn Karim al-Tahir, with a monstrous yuan-ti broodguard crouching to either side. From atop the palace wall a hundred feet to their left, a humanoid yuan-ti guard, carrying a bow and a horn, watches the carnage intently.
After Dolan casts Freedom of Movement on Dunch, the adventurers spring into action. Using the Cape of the Mountebank, Ixtli teleports to the top of the palace wall behind the guard, who turns to see the lizardman's jaws reaching towards him. While Yollotl wades toward the battle, Dolan casts Slow on three of the yuan-ti and Chibuzo fires two arrows into Rashaad, who loses concentration on his flying spell and drops down with a splash. Unimpeded by the water, the enraged Dunch charges at Rashaad. His first blow is absorbed by the magical energy that protects the Nizamish wizard, but the barbarian simply hammers him again. As he strikes, he sees that Rashaad wears a necklace from which is suspended a human hand wearing a ring.
Continuing the attack, Dolan pummels Rashaad with a volley of magic missiles, and Dunch smashes the wizard twice more. His second blow kills their old foe, and Rashaad tumbles face-down into the muddy water, his snake hands drifting in the slow current.
Chibuzo fires an arrow into one of the broodguards, while the other takes a bite out of Dunch. Atop the palace wall, Ixtli spears the guard twice, then kicks him over the edge. The guard tumbles into the shallow water, breaking his spine when he lands. Ixtli backflips off the wall and races towards the melee.
Oblivious to the death of their leader, the yuan-ti persist in slaughtering the grungs, whose daggers are nearly useless against the scimitars of their foes. The zombie grungs are more effective, crawling up and biting their serpentine enemies.
The Death Curse brings three more of the dead grungs back as zombies. At the foot of the palace wall, the twisted form of the dead guard also rises, while in the water, what was once Rashaad opens its eyes, then lurches to its feet, aimlessly waving its snake arms. Summoning Bahamut's Fury, Yollotl bludgeons the undead wizard with his flaming fists, until Rashaad's burning corpse topples lifelessly back into the water.
After Ixtli stabs and kicks a broodguard, Chibuzo finishes it with a blow from Atsu's Lance, then hurtles the spear into a yuan-ti, killing it too. Dunch slays the other broodguard. The remaining yuan-ti dispatch the last living grung and two of the zombie grungs, but one looks behind him to see the wrathful adventurers. He turns to flee, but Dunch sets off in pursuit. The barbarian zaps his foe with a bolt of electricity from Nyemba's Might before pulverizing his ribs with a blow to the chest, then crushing his head with an overhead blow.
One of the broodguards rises as a zombie, but Ixtli spears it in the leg, then stomps on it when it falls, ending it. Yollotl finishes a grung zombie, while Chibuzo cuts down another yuan-ti with warhammer and spear.
Meanwhile, Dolan searches Rashaad's corpse. The severed hand, the ring that it bears, and a leather bag on his belt all detect as magical, and the sorcerer seizes them all. At the same time, the zombie of the yuan-ti guard that Ixtli kicked off the palace wall slowly approaches him on its broken spine. Dolan smites it with a Fire Bolt when it draws near, and the dead thing collapses in flames.
Two of the recently killed yuan-ti rise again, but Chibuzo and Ixtli soon return them to oblivion, along with a grung zombie. The remaining yuan-ti start to disengage and retreat into the shrine, but Dunch chases them down, killing two of them with the Maul of Disruption before dispatching a grung zombie with a bolt from his armour.
Fleeing into the shrine, the final living yuan-ti takes cover behind an altar, draws a short bow, finishes the last grung zombie, then puts a poisoned arrow into Dunch. In answer the half-orc charges into the temple and repeatedly smashes his foe into a bloody pulp. Only a yuan-ti zombie remains, but Ixtli's Blood Spear soon puts it to rest, and the fighting ends.
In the aftermath, Chibuzo walks up to Rashaad's floating corpse and looks down on it with contempt. "You had it all, Rashaad... wealth, power, respect... and you threw it all away. For what? So ends your quest for immortality." He shoves the body away with his boot, and turns his back as the carcass drifts slowly away on the current.
Dolan opens the bag he took from Rashaad, finding it to be another Bag of Holding. Within are Nangnang's puzzle cube, coins and gemstones, a six-inch crystal ball, and a bone puzzle box inscribed with arcane runes. The crystal ball detects as magical, but the puzzle box does not. Judging that the risk of being scryed upon by Rashaad has now passed, he removes his Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location and puts on the Ring of the Oracle.
The others examine the broodguard corpses but find nothing recognizable about them. Inside the shrine, smoke still issues from the building's corridors and side halls. They find the top of the central altar inlaid with a mosaic of a froglike humanoid beating a leopard with snakes coming out of its shoulders: Nangnang fighting Shagambi the kamadan. Beyond the altar is a set of open double doors, with an empty pedestal visible in the room beyond.
Leaving Nangnang's shrine, the adventurers wade northwest, keeping close to the base of the cliff and moving as secretively as possible. Their route leads them past the Shrine of the Kimbala, where they once again spot a humanoid figure keeping watch on the top level. The watcher does not seem to notice them. When Dunch examines this person using the crystal lenses of Nyemba's Might, he sees no obvious serpentine features. In the daylight, they can also make out a slow swirling in the waters that flood the shrine's open ground level, as if the water is being drained below. Chibuzo favours entering the shrine, but the others dissuade him.
Travelling further northwest, they come to the main channel of the river that floods Omu, and are forced to swim. Everyone makes it across easily except Yollotl, who is caught by the current and carried away downstream. Though he is dunked repeatedly underwater, the Cap of Water Breathing he wears saves him from drowning. Chibuzo swims in pursuit, finally grabbing him by the arm and dragging him across the current into shallower waters. As Yollotl clambers to his feet, he spots another guard atop the palace wall across the river. The watcher hasn't noticed them yet, so Yollotl re-submerges himself and pushes Chibuzo back under the water. They cautiously swim behind a building and out of the guard's sight.
The others move southwards along the riverbank, and the party is reunited across from Papazotl's shrine, not far from the stirge-infested building where they first took shelter upon arriving in Omu. Heading north, they come to the east-west thoroughfare where Dunch crash-landed. The corpses of gargoyles still litter the street. Passing east to the causeway, then north, they find what seems like a good spot to rest: an apparently abandoned single-story stone building with a walled garden. When they enter, it looks like the house was ransacked some time ago. They find nothing threatening, and decide to take a short rest.
As part of their rest, they identify their recently obtained magic items. Ixtli determines that the crystal ball enables its user to scrye upon another creature. Chibuzo discovers that the helmet from the amphitheatre is a Helm of Telepathy, allowing its wearer to detect another's thoughts. Dunch learns that the ring from Rashaad's severed hand grants the ability to cast several spells: Shocking Grasp, Lightning Lure, Fly, Ball Lightning, and Shooting Stars. But the barbarian also feels like something is preventing him from understanding everything the ring can do. He detects an intelligent presence inside it, speaking to him in a language he can't understand.
Yollotl perceives that the severed hand is itself magical. If a ring is placed on the hand, one attuned to the hand can make use of the ring as if wearing it, and can also maintain concentration on an additional spell. Chibuzo briefly considers wearing the hand, as he has several spells that would benefit from this ability. But such is his hatred of Rashaad that in the end he declines to do so. The hand is stashed in Dunch's Bag of Holding, as evidence of the wizard's demise.
Dolan focuses on the Ring of the Oracle, and after a time, he hears the sibilant voice of Saja N'baza: "It has been some time, my Voice. I trust you are well?" The sorcerer describes to his leader what has happened since they last spoke at Camp Vengeance: arriving at Omu, meeting Nyemba, battling yuan-ti, encountering Caprakan, and recovering the puzzle cubes.
Saja N'baza praises Nyemba as a worthy ally, and judges the blessing she granted them against the strengthening Death Curse to have been very wise. She asks whether they have found her own shrine, but Dolan explains that it is being guarded, likely by the followers of Ras Nsi. The naga appreciates the difficulties they face; she also explains that re-energizing the portal to the Serpent's Way would require a great deal of magical energy.
As for Ras Nsi, "the only thing that ever mattered to Ras Nsi was himself," she says. "He would do anything to gain power and survive." It seems likely to her that Ras Nsi saw opportunity for his own gain by working with Lar'lenek.
She is not displeased that there is dissension between Ras Nsi's yuan-ti followers, but is nonplussed by the news that Fenthaza's faction is returning to Hisari: "the yuan-ti remain ever a threat."
When Dolan relates their encounter with Caprakan and the visions that the Aldani described, she is initially surprised to learn that Glyh'rul is imprisoned in the Tomb of the Nine Gods, but his presence there makes sense to her in retrospect. It had long seemed to her that there must have been a guiding hand behind the kings of Omu and their evil deeds.
At the news that Lar'lenek is in league with the hags known as the Sewn Sisters, Saja N'baza relates that when she was still in Omu, there were three advisors to the king who had unnaturally long lives. These were likely Nanny Pu'pu and her sisters. The naga warns that the three of them have likely formed a coven, making them more powerful together than individually.
She is excited to hear that Caprakan plans to visit her in Orolunga: "It has been too long since the Aldani have visited me."
When Dolan mentions the morning's earthquake, she says that the cause was likely the Peaks of Flame, the three volcanoes due east of Omu. She felt them spring to life this morning.
The sorcerer finishes his tale by describing the battle against Rashaad. Saja N'baza expresses her pleasure at the wizard's death ("filth like him don't deserve to live") but also her revulsion that he chose to become yuan-ti. "I did not believe my disgust for that man could grow any further."
The Oracle concludes by wishing the adventurers the greatest success. Their communion ends, and Dolan puts back on his Amulet of Proof against Detection and Location.
By now it is early afternoon, and the ruins of Omu grow warm under a bright sun and cloudless sky—unusual weather for Marakuru. The party travels the short distance north to the Tomb entrance.
As at their brief visit earlier, a fifteen-foot obelisk stands in front of a doorway obscured by creeping vines, surmounted by three stone gargoyles with the faces of bearded devils, their mouths agape in silent screams. The inscription on the obelisk is obscured by moss; once they clear off the plant growth, the carving reads:
Fear the night when the forsaken one seizes death’s mantle and the seas dry up and the dead rise and I, Lar'lenek the Eternal, reap the world of the living. Those who dare enter take heed:
The enemies oppose.
One stands between them.
In darkness, it hides.
Don the mask or be seen.
Speak no truth to the doomed child.
The keys turn on the inside only.
Chibuzo removes the creepers from the entrance and examines the double doors underneath, which are carved with reliefs of grinning skulls. The doors also contain eight square cavities, the same size as the puzzle cubes, arranged in a square pattern and connected by four intersecting lines running vertically, horizontally, and diagonally.
A portal to the right leads into the cliff face. Entering, Dunch, Dolan, and Ixtli find a narrow passage with pairs of alcoves on each side. Each alcove contains a three-foot-tall statue of an animal above a basin of oil, which bursts into flame as they proceed down the corridor. The first two statues are a jaculi and a su-monster, followed by an almiraj and a zorbo, an eblis and a froghemoth, and finally a grung and a kamadan. The corridor ends in a wall, but examining it closely, they can perceive the faint outline of a door lit from behind. Searching, Ixtli finds a piece of stonework that depresses under his touch, and the stone doorway slides up to reveal another alcove with a statue of a flail snail. A gold pendant shaped like a human eye hangs from one of its eye stalks. With the Sceptre of the Honored Voice, Dolan determines that it radiates divination magic.
Taking the pendant, they rejoin Chibuzo outside. As they move towards the double doors, they feel the pendant tugging towards the west. Following its pull, they pass by the obelisk and into a clump of bushes and trees up against the cliff wall, where they discover another entryway concealed behind the foliage.
Clearing a path, they find a short passageway that ends in a set of double doors. Stone skulls peer down from the lintel, and old bones litter the threshold. This set of doors is carved with the same grinning skulls as the other, but here there are nine of the square cavities in three rows of three, connected by the same arrangement of intersecting lines.
Dunch slots in the puzzle cubes, opposing each of the gods with its traditional foe, and finally placing the cube of Unkh the flail snail in the centre. The cubes flare with light, and the stone doors rise into the ceiling with a growling noise, like an angry beast.